Star Trek:Odyssey 27:Directives
by rylansato
Summary: Being questioned by Admiral Kreimer, Captain Allensworth and Captain Stork have to explain why they violated the Prime Directive as well as explain that a new force is rising to rival the Federation and its allies.
1. The Beginning

Star Trek: Odyssey: Directives

The cold, sleeting rain slammed sideways against the window as Admiral Kate Kreimer stood in front of it and looked out to the Golden Gate Bridge. She saw a few brave pedestrians rushing through the weather. She wasn't too much a fan of the rain. She sometimes wished that the weather modification network would take care of the rain storms as well as the destructive storms they're designed to deal with. She then turned to the two other occupants of her office.

Captain Jermaine Allensworth and Captain Blaine Stork stood in front of the admiral's desk. She began to pace back and forth behind her desk. She had a look that would make a Gorn shy away. When she got to the middle of the desk, she stopped and then turned her head to the two captains.

"Are you two aware of the Prime Directive?" She asked.

Allensworth and Stork were caught off guard by the question weren't sure how to take the question. They remained silent, thinking the question was rhetorical.

"It's not multiple choice nor is it rhetorical. Are you aware?" She already knew that they both did know the prime directive but she was trying to make a point and wanted them to verbally acknowledge the question.

"Yes, sir." They said in unison.

She slammed her hand down flat on the table. "THEN WHY DID YOU VIOLATE OUR MOST SACRED RULE? GENERAL ORDER ONE!"

"Permission to speak…" Allensworth began.

"Denied." Kreimer cut him off. "I'm not done. Captain Stork, tell me what the Prime Directive states."

Stork was a bit hesitant but did as he was told. "The Prime Directive forbids Starfleet officers from interfering with the social order of any planet."

"You two violated the Prime Directive, lost a starship, destroyed a Cardassian convoy and now scarred an entire civilization for the rest of its existence. I should have you both court martialed, thrown in the brig and snap you back so hard that you both think you're first year cadets again." The admiral sat down in her chair and clasped her hands together. She began to speak in a calmer tone that slightly frightened the two captains that she could go from such hostile tone to a gentler one. "Now tell me in great detail on what exactly happened. Why did you violate the Prime Directive? Your careers depend on this."

Captain Stork spoke up first. "This all started when the Thunderchild was patrolling the Theta Cygni System."

THE STORY

"Sir, I'm picking up multiple ships on an intercept course." Trinn reported from her console. "Bearing one two eight mark four."

Captain Blaine Stork snapped his attention to his Operations officer, Lieutenant Commander Michelle Trinn, who had transferred over from the Alexandria a few months prior. "Who is it?" He asked.

"I'm not sure, sir. They're jamming us. I can't get a sure identification on them." Trinn replied.

"Red alert, shields up and arm weapons." Stork ordered.

"I'm breaking through the interference." Trinn said. "The signal is clearing. Four ships, closing in at high warp." She looked over her shoulder at the captain. "Tzenkethi."

"On screen." Stork said. The view screen switched on and showed the triangular shape of the Tzenkethi ships at warp.

"Sir," Lieutenant Jimison said from her communications console. "We're intercepting a message their lead ship is sending to the others. It's telling the other ships to target the Federation ship."

"Lieutenant Bissell, lock weapons. Lieutenant Pomento, prepare to drop out of…"

Catastrophic deceleration hurled Stork to the deck, pinned his officers to their consoles and nailed the ship with a groaning crash. Consoles dimmed and the overhead lights went dark. On the viewscreen, the streaking stars had stopped, indicating the ship had dropped out of war and was drifting at impulse.

"Report." Stork said as he picked himself off the deck.

"Systems aren't responding, Captain." Trinn said making futile jabs at her console.

"Bridge to Engineering. Chris, report."

A few moments later, the voice of Lieutenant Commander Chris Saunders, the British born chief engineer came through the comm. system. "Minor damage down here, Captain. Main power is still online but I don't have any working consoles."

"What hit us, Chris?" Stork asked.

"Nothing from outside." Saunders said. "The last set of readings I saw before we went dark looked like a cascade systems failure, starting with communications.

"The intercepted message, Captain." Trinn said. "It could've been a virus that was slipped into our systems past our defenses.

"If that's the case then how long would it take to fix it?" Stork asked.

"We'll have to shut down the whole ship." Saunders said. "Power up the main computer with a portable generator then wipe its memory then restore it from protected backup."

"I didn't ask for a checklist. I asked how long." Stork said with irritation clearly seeping through his voice.

"Four to five hours."

The overhead lights came back on and every console on the bridge snapped back on.

"Four to five hours, eh?" Stork said with a slight grin.

Lieutenant Bissell checked her tactical console. "We have full power but no command inputs."

"How about anyone else?" Stork asked. The other officers shook their heads. Suddenly, the Thunderchild leapt into warp. "Engineering what is going on?"

"No idea, sir." Saunders reported sounding profoundly disturbed by the situation. "Speed is increasing, warp five, warp six, warp seven."

Bissell recoiled from her console as if it were possessed. "Quantum torpedoes are powering up."

"CHRIS, SHUT DOWN MAIN POWER!" Stork shouted.

Pomento called out from the helm. "Captain, we're on an intercept course with a Cardassian convoy.

Stork knew what was happening; it felt like his gut was being twisted. Everything happened so fast and he had no power to prevent it. Commander Brooks Purdy scrambled over to the tactical station. His voice trembled with dismay. "Captain, we have locked weapons on the convoy."

Cut off from the ship's command system, Stork didn't have the option of using the self-destruct sequence. Not that it would've changed the outcome of the one sided slaughter. It would have denied the Tzenkethi the pleasure of using his ship as their own personal play thing, but there would be nothing to stop them from destroying the convoy anyway. This was the Tzenkethi's way of rubbing salt in the wound of the Thunderchild's defeat; an insult that added to injury.

"Quantum torpedoes away." Purdy reported.

The blue colored torpedoes streaked from the Akira class starship towards the helpless Cardassian convoy. There was a deathly silence on the bridge. Stork could do nothing else but watch as the convoy erupted into flames and then into nothingness.

Then the lights flickered and went dark as well as the bridge consoles. Stork and his officers stood in silence in the darkness of his bridge. Anger and adrenaline left him shaking with impotent fury. Hundreds of Cardassians had been wiped out of existence and the last thing they had known before they died was that it was a Federation starship that had killed them.

"I don't get it." Bissell said. "We were disabled. The Tzenkethi could've destroyed the convoy themselves. Why use us to do it?"

"Because they probably want to weaken the relations between the Federation and the Cardassian Union." Stork said.

"Engineering to Bridge." Saunders said through the intercom.

"Go ahead." Stork said.

"Captain, I think we've got a shot at getting out of this with our skins, but it'll be tight."

"What's the plan, Chris?"

"When the Tzenkethi powered us up for the attack, they left a residual charge in the warp nacelles. We can trigger a manual release and make a small 2 second warp jump."

"I think they'd notice that." Commander Purdy said.

"I've got Stebleton and McGraw venting plasma through the impulse manifold and some of my guys are pushing a quantum warhead out of the launch bay. If we detonate the warhead and trigger the jump at the exact same moment, it should look like we self-destructed."

"Sounds like a plan." Stork said. "Let's do it. Make it fast, Chris. It won't be long before…" Stork was cut off by explosions that hammered the Thunderchild. The deck pitched wildly as sparks sprayed from the aft bridge consoles. Within seconds, the only light on the bridge came from the irregular flashes of EPS powered displayes.

Then a soul shattering concussion launched Stork up and backward through the shadows. He hit the aft bulkhead like dead weight and felt as if his soul had been knocked free of his body. Sinking into a different, deeper kind of darkness he could only hope that the last explosion he heardwas the one meant to save the Thunderchild and not destroy her.


	2. All We Can Do Is Hope

"Chris," Stork said. Normally, the chief engineer snapped to at the sound of the captain's voice. This time he saw back against the railing opposite of the control panel and looked down at the captain with a weary expression."

"Yes, Captain?"

"Good news." He said. "Looks like your plan worked. If the Tzenkethi had figured it out, we'd probably all be dead right now."

Saunders's frown was steady. "Is that your idea of cheering us up, Captain? Because if it is, you suck at it."

"I take it things aren't going well down here?"

"You could say that, sir." Saunders said. He climbed down from the platform and led Stork on a slow stroll down the length of main engineering. "The warp drive is irreparable, all that's left of the dilithium crystals are splinters. At least half of the induction coils in each nacelle are ruptured, if not more. And the ventral plasma relays were severed in the last explosion."

Stork glanced inside the warp core through a gap left by a detached pylon conduit. He could see for himself that Saunders wasn't exaggerating. The damage was extensive.

"So what are we looking at? Do we need the Alexandria to bring us a whole new warp core?"

The chief engineer turned and folded his arms over his chest. "Yeah, that would help and if you can think of a way to ask them or anyone else for that matter, I'd be most impressed, Sir."

It took him a moment to deduce his implication. "Subspace communications?"

"Fubar'd." He said. "The virus corrupted our software and the explosion that covered our escape destroyed the transceiver array."

"Wonderful." Stork said. "Isn't there something we can raid for parts to fix it?"

Saunders gestured vaguely around the compartment. "We don't have enough working parts to keep the lights on and you want me to reinvent the subspace radio."

Stork sighed. "Since you brought it up, when can we expect to have lights back?"

"It depends." He looked back at his engineers, who were tinkering with an assortment of broken or deformed components that looked more like scrap metal bound for reclamation than like the essential components of a starship's warp core. "If we can stay awake, maybe ten hours."

"Make it six." Stork said. "I want the turbolifts running before alpha shift goes to sleep."

"Yes, sir." Saunders said with a nod. "I'll keep Commander Purdy informed of our efforts."

"Carry on." Stork said returning the nod and with that he walked off.

Commander Brooks Purdy waited until the door of the captain's ready room closed before he spoke up. "It's worse than we thought."

Captain Stork sat down in his chair and offered his first officer a seat. Purdy sat down and continued with his report. "We lost more than half the crew in the attack and more were killed setting off the diversionary blast."

"Damn it." Stork whispered. "Where'd the jump take us?"

"Pomento is still trying to figure it out. He said he set a course in the direction of the Maxia star system but none of the constellations are adding up nor are the planets. We're not where we are supposed to be. With communications down, it may be awhile before we're found."

"If ever." Stork muttered.

The captain's downbeat manner troubled Purdy. "Being a bit pessimistic, aren't you?"

Worry lines deepened on Stork's brow. "If yesterday's events are any guide, this entire sector is likely to be under enemy control soon." His countenance darkened. "This was only the beginning. The first torpedo in a war with the Tzenkethi."

"You don't know that, sir." Purdy said. "It might have been an isolated skirm…"

"They ambushed us, Commander." Stork snapped. "They came in numbers and they turned our own weapons on an allied convoy. This was planned. They've been preparing for a long time, and now they're making their move and we're stuck out here, with no way home and no way to send a warning." He launched himself out of his chair like a spring but stopped as soon as he was fully upright. "Starfleet intelligence has been noticing activity along the Tzenkethi border noticing Breen, Gorn, Tholian and Romulan ships entering their space."

Stork looked out the viewport that was about as tall as he was but not as wide. "We're not ready for another war. We're still recovering from the Mirror War and the Cardassians are still hurting from the Dominion War and that ended six years ago. If a war is going to start, I don't want to be stranded on the sidelines."

"So what are we supposed to do, Captain?" Purdy asked.

Seconds passed while Purdy waited for the captain to respond. Finally Stork turned away from the viewport and towards his first officer. "We survive. If the war has begun, Earth won't have any ships to spare on a search and rescue mission. Whatever else happens, we have to assume we're on our own now."

Purdy wasn't ready yet to embrace the worse case scenario. "What if Earth does send a rescue ship? Our best bet of being found would be to return to our original course, at best possible speed."

"That's also our best chance of being found by the enemy." Stork countered. "They knew our route well enough to hit us with almost no warning. Using the same route to limp home strikes me as a bad idea. Besides, without the transceiver array, we're mute. Even if someone came looking for us, we can't respond to their hails. At anything less than close range, we might be mistaken for an alien ship that doesn't want to make contact."

The captain pulled out a padd and laid it on his desk. "Take a look at this." Purdy stood up from his chair and leaned forward. Stork had activated a map on the padd. "This is our last course before we attacked the convoy."

Studying the dense cluster of symbols and coordinates on the map "What are we looking for, sir?"

"A nice M-class planet where we can stock up on supplies and try and make repairs to the warp drive." His finger ran across the screen and it enhanced the image and showed a magnified area of the section of space they were in. "Right here. Here's the closest system with a planet that has a nitrogen oxygen atmosphere, liquid water, and subspace signal emissions."

Purdy shook his head. "I'm not sure about those readings, sir. Those readings could have been caused by a sensor glitch."

"Ok, fine, but how do you account for the high energy particles flooding out of that system?"

"That star is pretty dense. For all we know, we might be picking up signals from a system behind it, due to gravitational distortions."

Stork was unconvinced. "I don't think so. If we were seeing distortions, there'd be others. These readings may be scarce but they're clear. There's a planet there with the resources we need and it's the closest safe harbor in the area."

"We're not for certain that it's safe and 'closest' is a relative term, sir."

"We have no other choice, Brooks."

Brooks sighed. "I'll have Saunders put the impulse engines into overdrive. This trip to this M-class planet would normally be a day or two at most but at impulse it'll be a few weeks at least." With a tired grin, Purdy added as he stood up. "Then the only thing we need is a deck of cards."

Stork smiled back at his first officer. "Thank you, Brooks." His voice sounded unusually somber.

"Are you all right, sir?" He asked.

A rueful grimace twisted the captain's mouth. "I'm fine. It just annoys the hell out of me that the time when Earth needs us most is the one time we can't be there." He returned his eyes to the viewport. "All we can do is hope that when we finally bring our ship home, there's still a home worth bringing it to."


	3. The Planet

After a month at full impulse, the USS Thunderchild had finally entered orbit around the planet that Captain Stork had eyeballed as a suitable place to repair the ship.

Captain Stork stood up from his command chair, and approached the forward Operations console. "What do you mean, there are no subspace signal emissions coming from the planet?" He said.

"I don't know, sir." Trinn said. "I know we picked them up when we first headed for the planet but now they've stopped and there are no signs of civilization."

"Hmmm." Stork paced around the bridge. "How's the air down there?"

"Breathable." Trinn said. "However, a bit on the thick side for us."

"Let's go down and take a look." Stork said heading for the aft turbolift. "Brooks, Michelle, Hailey come with me." He slightly raised his voice so that the computer would acknowledge he was contacting other members of the crew through the intercom. "Chris, Jantzen, meet us in Transporter room Two."

He let the other three members of his senior staff enter the turbolift before him. "Emily, you have the bridge." He said before letting the doors close.

The away team stepped through the high grass of a field that went off for miles to their left but up ahead and only meters away was a forest that would dwarf the red woods of Earth.

"How old do you think those trees are?" Stork asked.

Michelle pulled a tricorder from her belt and scanned the trees. "Some of might be as old as fourteen thousand years."

"This would be Lieutenant Selander's dream." Stork said as they entered the forest. "But I can't figure out why the forest floor is so overgrown when it gets barely any light. What's feeding all this greenery?"

"Maybe they don't rely on photosynthesis." Purdy said. "Or maybe they have a symbiotic relationship with the trees."

"That could be." Trinn said getting ready to holster her tricorder when it started beeping. She pulled it back out and read its contents. "Sir, I'm picking up something one hundred and seventy meters in front of us. It's on the other side of the forest."

"What kind of something?" Stork asked.

"Something big. Like a city."

"A city just doesn't pop up out of thin air." Purdy said.

"That's what my tricorder was reading." Trinn said.

"Maybe the city was cloaked." Saunders said. "Which is possible because there have been reports of entire planets being cloaked to avoid visitors."

"If that was their intention, why de-cloak now?" Purdy said.

"Well, let's go ask them." Stork said.

"Sir, the Prime Directive…" Purdy said.

"I don't believe the Prime Directive applies because if they cloaked because we entered orbit and then de-cloaked after we beamed down, they have knowledge of other life out there. They must have scanned us and figured we didn't pose a threat and have decided to roll out the welcome mat." Stork said.

Shortly later, the away team emerged from the forest. They fanned out in a line and stared at the vista before them. Rolling hills covered in knee high grass and brightly colored wildflowers. The crescent border of the forest stretched north and south for hundreds of kilometers, disappearing into the misty distance. Flatlands stretched west towards the horizon in front of a jagged mountain range backed by a seemingly endless bank of storm clouds.

In the middle of the plain was a city unlike which Stork had ever seen before. Metallic white with towers that were perfectly symmetrical, but his eyes couldn't discern all the minuscule details of its architecture from this distance.

"Now what, Sir?" Saunders asked.

"We'll start with a 'hello' and see how it goes from there." Stork said.

"Some plan." Purdy said. "Showing up empty handed on their front porch. We should've brought a gift."

Stork grinned and played along. "Like what?"

Purdy shrugged. "Maybe a casserole or a basket of muffins cause everyone likes muffins."

"I'll have to revise the first contact list. Phaser, universal translator, medical supplies and a basket of muffins." Stork said.

It was about an hour later when they reached the edge of the city. Standing at the edge of the city was a tall, white being that was humanoid in the broadest sense of the term. This creature was about eight or nine feet tall with most of the height coming from the long neck that supported the small head. They had onyx colored eyes that reminded Stork of the eyes of aliens from old Earth alien movies. Its arms and legs were freakishly thin and seem to in no way be able to support any weight. It moved slowly towards the away team.

"Hello, guests. I am Mickind. Welcome to Parlian."

"Hello, Mickind. I am Captain Blaine Stork of the starship Thunderchild." He pivoted and motioned to his away team. "These are members of my crew."

"You have come seeking aid?" Mickind asked.

"Yes," Stork said. "Our ship was…"

"Damaged in conflict." Mickind said. "We observed the incident and witnessed your approach."

"You've watched us travel for about a month?"

Mickind nodded. "We have. Do you wish to enter Parlian?"

"Yes, if you could help us. We and the Federation would be most grateful."

Mickind extended an arm toward the city allowing the team passage. As they walked, Stork walked in stride with Mickind. "Our species is called Terran. Human is more commonly used though. My crew hosts different species other than Terrans such as Vulcans, Trill, Andorians."

"We know." Mickind said. "You are a species that achieved space travel in your not so distant past."

To Stork, the twenty-first century was a long time ago but time was a relative nature. Disregarding the remark, he continued to ask questions. "What are your people called?"

"Malkins. This is our capital city, Parlian."

"It's beautiful." Trinn said.

"Where are you taking us?" Stork asked.

"To your accommodations." Mickind said.

"I suppose we could use a bit of a rest after the day we've had." Stork said. "When can we talk to someone about help fixing our ship?"

"Your ship will not be repaired." Mickind said.

The away team's expressions of wonderment at the city's beauties were replaced by surprised and indignant glowers. Stork felt his own features harden with anger, then he forced himself to relax and remain diplomatic. "We wouldn't expect you to perform any labor, of course. You obviously have remarkable manufacturing capabilities. If your people could just help us fabricate some parts…"

"Perhaps I was not clear." Mickind said. "We will not aid you in the restoration of your vessel."

"Could you at least send a subspace signal back to Earth so another ship can come out here and get us?"

"We have that capability." Mickind said. "But we will do no such thing. Multiple warnings were sent over subspace to your vessel during its approach and were not heeded."

"Our communication relays were damaged." Stork said adopting a defensive tone. "We can't send or receive any signals."

"We realized that when we conducted more intensive scans of your vessel. It was the only reason we allowed you to proceed without interference."

"Are you saying that if we would have responded, you would've destroyed us?" Stork asked.

"No, but we would have sent you to another area of space where you could have sustained your lives. For many of your centuries, we have lived in seclusion. In recent centuries, as the local species began traveling the stars, we masked our power signatures and obstructed scans of our world to preserve our privacy. Clearly, our efforts were ineffective."

"Why not just send us back to Earth?" Lieutenant Bissell asked.

"Preventing your coming here would only have aroused your interest. Your curiosity would have compelled your inevitable return and others would have followed. We could not permit this. Allowing you to depart now that you have been here would pose the same threat. For this reason, we cannot allow you to transmit any signals back to your people.

Seething, Saunders asked. "Then why don't you just kill us?"

"We will not destroy life, but we will protect our privacy." Mickind said. "Only the fact that you could not reveal your discovery of our world enabled me to petition the council for leniency on your behalf." They approached a building and stopped. "I hope that you find your accommodations satisfactory. We interfaced with your computer to acquaint ourselves with you nutritional requirements and other biological needs. These rooms in this building have been configured accordingly. Please do not think yourselves as prisoners."

"Then what are we then?" Stork asked with his icy glare fixed on Mickind.

"Honored guests, with restrictions." Mickind said.

"And my ship?"

"It will not be harmed." At that, Mickind extended his arm and people materialized in the streets. They all shared the same look of confusion. "However, like yourselves, it can never again leave this planet."


	4. Meetings

At the heart of the city, concealed by a ring of delicately complex interlocked towers and slashed with stray beams of late afternoon sunlight, stood an intimidating, colossal pyramid of dark crystal and pristine metal, the Council hall.

Mickind walked with Captain Stork as he escorted him to the chamber. He followed his guide down a cavernous thoroughfare that cut all the way through the pyramid. The Council chamber had four towering smoky crystal walls. Four tiers of seating surrounded her, one sloping down from each wall, each suspended more than a dozen meters above the main level, which was open and empty except for him and Mickend.

A masculine voice resonated in the cathedral like space. "Welcome, Captain Blaine Stork." He turned until he saw the speaker, a Malkin, standing in the middle of the lowest row of seats on the eastern tier. He continued. "I'm Demo, the leader of the council of the Malkins."

He nodded his understanding and then addressed Demo. "Thank you for meeting with me."

Demo's reply was cool and businesslike. "Are your accommodations and provisions acceptable?"

"They are, but our captivity is not." Stork said.

"We regret that such measures are necessary." Demo said.

Keeping his anger in check was difficult for Stork. "Why are they necessary? We pose no threat to you."

"Your arrival on the surface left us little alternative, Captain. As Mickend already told you, we greatly value our privacy. Once it became clear that you were aware of our world, we were forced to choose between banishing you to a distant galaxy and making you our guests. The latter option seemed the more merciful of the two."

Stork rolled his eyes and let slip a derisive huff. "Don't take it personally, but we don't see it that way."

"That's not surprising." Demo said.

Reining in his temper, Stork said, "If it's isolation you want, we can arrange that. I could have your system quarantined. None of our people would ever return."

"Not officially." Demo said. "However, in our experience with other species and civilizations, we have often found that telling people not to come here inevitably attracts visitation by those who disregard authority, hardly the sort of guests we'd want to encourage. I'm certain you can understand that."

"Yes, of course." Stork said. Diplomacy had never been Stork's strong suit, and the Malkins were making this overture more difficult for him than he had expected. Through gritted teeth he said. "What if I swore my crew to secrecy?"

"When you reached your people, they would expect an explanation for your absence. And you and your crew would still know the truth, Captain. Coaxed by threat or temptation, one of you would talk."

"Then erase our memories!" He knew he was getting desperate, but he had to press on. "We can't reveal what we don't know. With all this crazy technology of yours, I bet you've got something that could whitewash our minds, make us forget we ever saw you. You could erase everything since the ambush of our ship, send us back, make us think we blacked out…"

"And what of the time that has passed since then? How would you and your crew react to that, Captain? Would you accept a circumstance so bizarre without seeking an explanation?" And if you did, who's to say that once taken back to that moment, you wouldn't make the same choice you did before, and set course once again to our world?"

Stork felt tired, of arguing, of plotting, of all the little battles that had marked every hour of his command since the ambush. Softening his approach, he started. "You make good points, Demo. I really can't refute them, so I won't try. But I just don't understand your motives. You cite this need for privacy as the reason my crew and I are being held prisoner. Why are you so afraid of contact with other races?"

"Our impetus is not fear, Captain." Demo said. "It's pragmatism." He looked at Mickend and Stork did likewise.

Mikend turned to him and explained. "When less advanced species become aware of us and what we can do, they tend to respond with either intense curiosity or savage aggression, and sometimes both. In the past, alien civilizations have inundated us with please for succor, expecting us to deliver them from the consequences of their own shortsightedness. Others have tried to steal the secrets of our technologies or force them from us. Because we will not take sentient life, even in self-defense, it became increasingly difficult to discourage these abuses. Some sixty-five thousand of your years ago, we concluded that isolation and secrecy would best serve our great work, so we relocated our cities and people here, to what was, at the time, a relatively untraveled sector of the galaxy. However, the development of starflight by several cultures and your arrival on this planet have reminded us that while changes are never permanent, change is."

"Yeah, life is hard." Stork said. "Cry me a river." While the scientist struggled to parse his sarcastic idiom, he aimed her ire at Demo. "So let me get this straight, my ship, my crew, and myself are doomed to spend the rest of our days here because you don't like getting hassled?"

The angrier he became, the calmer Demo seemed. "It's not quite so simple a matter, Captain. These conflicts tend to escalate, despite our best efforts to contain them. Often, as we take bolder steps to defend ourselves and our sovereignty, several less developed civilizations will band together out of fear or avarice. When that happens, we often must take extreme measures, up to and including their displacement."

Stork held up a hand to interrupt him. "Displacement?"

"A shifting en masse, of an entire civilization and its people, often to another galaxy. To use an analogy from your own world, it's like catching a spider in your home and expelling it to the outdoors rather than killing it." He paused and grew more somber. "It's a tactic we find distasteful and distressing. Having been forced to it in the past, we now choose to conceal ourselves rather than risk provoking another such travesty."

Begging and pleading both had proved ineffective. All that Stork could do now was try to lay groundwork for a future opportunity. "If my people and I have to stay here, we'd at least like to get to know more about your culture." He said.

Mickend looked up to Demo. "With the Council's permission?"

Demo nodded. "Granted."

Meanwhile, in the shade of a tree by the lake, violent ideas were taking root. Most of the crew were asleep in their new rooms. The rest, mostly security officers, some others in the science and command divisions, had risen at dawn, stolen away in silence, and gathered here. They circled around Lieutenant Keeling, who used a twig snapped from a low branch to draw designs in the dirt.

"Our biggest challenge right now is the scattering field around the city." He said, etching a circle in the dirt. "We can't transport through it, and we can't get signals out."

Lieutenant Thomas tumbled three small stones in his hand while he stared at the circle Keeling had drawn. "Depending on our objective, we need to either get outside the field or collapse it. It's about a hundred or so meters to get clear so I'd suggest we focus on knocking out the field."

"That's a good plan." Ensign Vail said. "Except we have no power in our gear."

Keeling waved away the complaint with his twig. "There are ways to fix that. Worst case scenario, we can use solar power to recharge our weapons."

"That could take time." Vail said.

"Are you going somewhere, Ensign?" Keeling shot back. "The city has some kind of power generator. Maybe we can find a way to tap into it. We can talk to Lieutenant Stebleton about that, but let's remember that we have options. The rifles and tricorders might be out cold, but we still have flares and our hands."

Ensign Vail spoke up again. "I don't want to be pessimistic, but close quarters combat with the Malkins sounds like a bad idea."

"Except that the Malkins are pacifists. They're like Vulcans." Thomas said.

"Not on purpose." Keeling said, feeling the urge to clarify the situation. "But accidents happen. Just because they aren't trying to kill us doesn't mean they have to save us when we make mistakes."

"I assume we're trying to get back our ship?" Vail asked.

"Yes." Keeling said. "And from there, out of orbit, then home."

"Then we have to take down the scattering field." Thomas said. "That's job one. Then we need to neutralize the Malkin's ability to hurt the Thunderchild. Once that's done, we activate the remote transporter and get the hell out."

Keeling nodded. "It sounds like there's a good chance we could achieve the first two goals by causing a major disruption of the city's power supply. Do it right, and we might gain a useful distraction while we're at it."

"A useful distraction?" Thomas asked. "An explosion?"

"Correct." Keeling said. "Is there a problem?"

The young Lieutenant in the operations division looked troubled. "We don't know what kind of damage we might do with demolitions. We might be talking about a lot of collateral damage." His jaw clenched and he swallowed. "I don't think the captain will go for that."

"No." Keeling said. "I don't imagine he will. Which is why we're treating that part of the plan as need to know information until further notice, and the captain doesn't need to know."

That seemed to mollify the officers, but Thomas looked away to hide his agitation and Vail had a cautious air about her as she asked. "What if he finds out anyway?"

"Funny thing about collateral damage." Keeling said. "It can happen to anyone. Even captains."


	5. Decisions

Sheltered under the gnarled boughs of the tree at the edge of the blue reflecting pool, the stranded members of the Thunderchild's senior staff sat in a circle around their captain.

"The clock is definitely ticking." Purdy said. "Mickind says they're only days away from powering up this super gadget of theirs."

Saunders and Trinn pulled out tricorders. It had taken Saunders a few days to rig up a solar cell to power the tricorders.

"We had to set the tricorders for a passive scan." Saunders said as he handed them out. "Each tricorder was set to look for something different."

Doctor Jantzen King and Counselor Emily Kahkonen each accepted a tricorder from Trinn, who noted, "Security around the machine is tighter than other areas we've been to." It's completely sealed in and underground."

"What exactly is it, Chris?" Stork asked.

"Mickend says it can make real time contact between here and the end of the universe."

Lifting his eyebrows in mild surprise. "Any idea how it works?"

Saunders tapped the screen of his tricorder. "The platform creates an intense subspace phase distortion field. And the pulses inside the column are soliton waves. This thing sends waves through subspace and uses them to drill a hole. Then the phase distorter acts like a nut and bolt, pulling the two ends together until they meet."

"Wait, what?" Asked Lieutenant Erin Crane, the Thunderchild's senior contact specialist.

Stork turned off his tricorder. "Thoughts, Michelle?"

"With all the power that thing uses, it might make a hell of a feedback pulse if it got disrupted during their big event, maybe enough to knock out their power source and drop the scattering field so we can beam back up to the Thunderchild and break orbit."

Saunders let out a snort of laughter. "Or it might blow up the planet."

"Another thing is that our ship is still messed up and has not been fixed." Purdy said. "Even if we succeed in getting out of here and what not, are we just going to limp home, arrive whenever that may be, and ask if we have any messages?"

"Who says we have to get home late?" Saunders asked.

Stork was not in a mood for mystery. "What do you mean?"

"The tunnels the Malkins are making through subspace are a lot like wormholes. Even though, they're in subspace, most of the rules still apply. If it makes a shortcut through space, it can make a shortcut through time, forward or backward."

"Time travel, Chris?"

"Why not? If this thing is as powerful as Mickind says it is, we can get back to Earth in time to warn them about the Tzenkethi. It might save hundreds of lives."

Captain Stork frowned. "And might destroy the timeline." Even though he wasn't fond of time travel, Stork was tempted by the idea. It would be a chance to erase the biggest mistake of his Starfleet career, maybe even save the convoy, hundreds of lives and prevent a war with the mysterious Tzenkethi. Then he reminded himself that tampering with history and temporal mechanics might be a task with zero margin for error. The slightest mistake could destroy everything and everyone he cared about. And there was the reaction of the Malkins to consider, whether the crew of the Thunderchild succeeded or not.

"No." He finally said. "Messing with time is too damn dangerous. We might make things worse. For all we know we were meant to be lost in action. I want to go back home just as much as the rest of you, but I'm not willing to risk undoing the past month and a half of history, a month and a half of people's successes and sacrifices, just so I can feel like I didn't miss anything." He scanned the reactions of the officers as he added. "Even more important, if we actually escape and get home, think about what the Malkins will do, not just to us, but to Earth. We might end up condemning our entire world to oblivion. And I can't allow that." He let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry, but our first duty is to protect the Federation and in this case that means making a sacrifice and accepting our fate. Is that clear?"

The officers gave nods knowing they'd never see home or their loved ones again.

Lieutenant Keeling stood next to a tree and stared at the overcast clouds that hovered above the mountain range in the distance. "So, he's lost the will to fight?" He turned to his visitors.

The junior contact specialist, Ensign Fiona Jane and engineer Lieutenant David Johnson stood and looked nervous, mainly due to them going behind their captain's back.

"They've broken him." Jane said.

Keeling's brow creased with intense concentration. "Do you agree with Ensign Jane's assessment, Lieutenant?"

"I do." Johnson said.

"I wish there was satisfaction in being able to say I told you so, but there isn't." Keeling said as he turned away from them. "If Captain Stork isn't willing to use force to secure our freedom, then I have to question his fitness to command." He turned to Lieutenant Johnson. "Tell me about your diversion."

"It entails coordinated strikes on the machine in two of the other cities, preferably ones as far as possible from this one."

"I don't have that much support." Keeling said.

Johnson pulled a tricorder from his belt and handed it to him. "We only need to seize one node of the machine in person. In the second city, we'll use a timer detonated warhead to blow up a different node while it's powered up for their big experiment. The tachyon pulse alone should be enough to collapse the scattering fields worldwide."

"For how long?"

Johnson shrugged. "No idea. At least for a few minutes so we can get back to the ship and break orbit."

Keeling considered the power that their captors had already displayed on the planet's surface. "Once we're on the ship, what then? Do we really think we can outrun the Malkins at impulse?"

"We may not have to." Johnson said. "The technology they're using for their experiment could be modified to send us home in an instant."

Keeling gritted his teeth and twisted his mouth in a rueful grimace. "Let's remember what the captain said about our hosts' bad habit of displacing entire civilizations. Do we want to risk bringing that kind of attention to Earth?"

"If we do this properly, Lieutenant." Johnson said. "The Malkins will never know we were here."

"That's the other propose the captain rejected." Jane said. "The Malkins' machines can move us though time and space. We'd have to run afoul of the predestination paradox, and deal with meeting ourselves and about a dozen other temporal no nos but we could go back, warn Earth of the Tzenkethi and save ourselves from getting stuck here in the first place."

Other officers who had aligned themselves with Keeling approached Jane and Johnson. It was Thomas and Vail.

"Did I just hear that?" Vail asked. "We can go back? I can see my husband and my boys?"

"In theory." Johnson said. "In order for this work, phase two of the plan will have to work. We're not sure how to make the machines do what we want, but the Malkins do and if they're properly motivated, they might be…persuaded to assist us."

Keeling thought about it. Time travel was a dangerous topic. He was trained in security measures and other areas of that detail but the human cost was staring him in the eye. This was a chance to bring these people back home and spare all those people back home the grief of believing the ship and its crew was lost. He turned back to Lieutenant Johnson."

"Lieutenant, are you sure you can pull this off?"

"I'm certain. It's our only chance."

Keeling looked Jane and Johnson in the eye. "When this turns ugly, and I promise you, it will, can I count on you to go the distance?"

"Whatever it takes. I refuse to die as a prisoner, here or anywhere else."

"All right then. Forget what Captain Stork wants. If we're going to make a go of this, we have to hit the Malkins where it'll hurt them most." He worked his way around the circle with speed and certainty. "Thomas, you and Festa get munitions in place before they start their experiment. Have Lieutenant Johnson tell you which site to mine. Vail, go over the scans of the Malkins with Ensign Jane and see if we can bring them down to our level and hurt them once we get them there. Dawson, Campbell, you're both with me."

Thomas looked a bit worried. "What will you be doing, sir?"

"I expect Captain Stork will object to our plan." Keeling said. "He and the others officers will have to be kept in sight and out of the loop. When it's time to attack, they'll have to be contained and until we're ready to beam up." He saw Thomas's expression of concern mirrored on the faces of select others. "Trust me. He'll thank us after we get home." That seemed to appease the others. Keeling clapped his hands. "Let's get to work."


	6. Assaults

Blaine Stork awoke struggling and flailing as a gloved hand clamped over his mouth and nose.

"Quick, tie him." A voice snapped.

He lashed out and cuffed Ensign Dawson on the ear before someone else snared his wrist and yanked it backward.

Dawson and Campbell pulled Stork from his bunk. The ensign's hand slipped from his mouth and he inhaled, a prelude to a shout then Campbell stuck a rolled up sock in his mouth, muffling his panicked cry for help.

There were sounds of struggle in the rooms adjoining his, more sharp but hushed orders, heavy thuds of bodies striking the floor, the smack of fists against flesh.

His attackers flipped him face down on the floor. One of them, he couldn't see which, kneeled on his back and held his wrists behind him while the other bound them. The odor of their exertion was heavy in the air. He kept trying to pull free, and they tightened their hold. Beads of sweat rolled from the back of his head where the hair was the shortest, soaking his forehead and neck.

Campbell and Dawson each grabbed one of his arms, under the shoulders and dragged him backward out of his quarters, into one of the corridors of their suite. At the same Commander Purdy was being dragged, bound and gagged, from his room by Ensigns Grendal and Spagnolo. Lieutenant Commander Trinn was being pulled from her room by Lieutenant Chase and Ensign Stein. Counselor Kahkonen was dragged from her room by Lieutenants Craig and Tremblay. Lieutenant Commander Saunders was pulled out by Lieutenant McGrath and Ensign Osgood. Doctor King was pulled from her room by Ensigns Marzetti and Jane. Lieutenant Bissell was pulled out by Ensigns Lloyd and Miller. Lieutenant Pomento was pulled out of his room Lieutenant Tyler and Ensign Black. Lieutenant Crane was dragged out of her room by Ensign Watters and Lieutenant Keeling, and Lieutenant Commander Jimison was pulled out of her room by Ensigns Roy and Brooks. Stork was able to glance down the hallway and see the remaining crew that wasn't mutinying receiving the same treatment. They had lost more than half the crew in the attack, luckily none of the senior officers, but there were a lot of crewmembers participating in this mutiny.

"Bring them to the main room." Keeling ordered. The group did as he said and pushed, pulled and prodded their prisoners into the suite's living area, near the terrace entrance. Keeling released his hold on Jimison. "Seat them back to back and tie them together."

Stork eyed Keeling as he stepped away and watched the others lash the senior officers together. The lieutenant conferred in whispers with the others for a moment before he acknowledged Captain Stork's baleful glare. "I won't insult you by apologizing. And I can't say as I mind our conversation being a bit one sided in my favor for once." He knelt down beside the captain. "I had to do this and you know it." He then looked over to the others. "Dawson, I'll brief our guests on what happens next. Deploy the others and wait for my signal." As the group began to leave, he added. "Campbell, hang back."

Campbell turned and halted while the rest of the mutineers departed. Stork caught a backward, regretful glance from Ensign Jane.

_It's so hard to find good help these days. _Stork jokingly berated himself.

"Take their communicators." Keeling said.

Stork wondered if Keeling was going to have their communicators removed or not, hoping for the latter. As Campbell plucked the comm. badge from Stork's chest, he felt a twinge of irritation for their efficiency and thoroughness. After taking all of their comm. badges, he tossed them to the other side of the room. Campbell then pulled a phaser and aimed it at Stork.

"Give the order, sir." Campbell said as his thumb lightly rested on the firing stud.

Keeling absorbed Stork's murderous, defiant stare. After several seconds he turned to Campbell. "Lower your weapon. "We'll leave them here."

Campbell let his weapon lower and then he holstered it. "Sir, that wasn't the plan."

"I know." Keeling said. He turned to the captain. "I've chosen not to kill you, Captain. Please don't make me regret my decision."

The two of them left the room and Stork assessed his situation with dour cynicism.

_I'm bound hand and foot, with a sock in my mouth. _He sighed. _ I wish he would've shot me._

Time was dragging for Fiona Jane even as the wind whipped her long dark hair above her hair like snakes. She still had a sick feeling in her gut from helping Lieutenant Keeling. Everything and unfolded so quickly, after leaving her shipmates bound and gagged, and persuading the Malkins to provide them with transport to the nearest city for "cultural research" Jane had felt her pulse throbbing in her temples. She waited for her shipmates to be found and then ruin all of what had been planned and then all of this would be for nothing.

"Moment of truth." Keeling said as he motioned his followers into the room where the Malkins were now overseeing the machines they treasured so much. The group charged into the open with phasers drawn. "STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING!"

The Malkins, if they were surprised or alarmed, gave no appearance of it. Keeling stepped out. "We are here because we desire your cooperation. And before you start running off, I should wan you that if you don't cooperate, there will be grave consequences."

"Your weapons pose little threat to us, Anton Keeling." The nearest Malkin scientist said.

"Yes, I'm aware of that." Keeling looked to Campbell. "If you would please, Ensign."

Campbell turned, fired and shot Jane's left foot. She collapsed to the floor, screaming. Her ragged cries of horror and agony resounded in the vast enclosure, bringing her pain and shock back to her threefold. The initial needlelike blast of pain in her now crisped foot became an unbearable burning that spread from her ankle into her entire leg. No one had told her this would be part of the plan.

The Malkins crowded forward as if attracted to her pain. Keeling waited until they had circled around the group before speaking. "Any closer and my ensign will kill her."

"And if we drain the power from your weapons?" Another Malkin asked.

Dawson pressed a knife against Jane's throat.

"Then he cuts her from ear to ear." Jane fought to blink through her kaleidoscope of tears as Keeling continued to speak. "We're going to ask you to make some adjustments to your apparatus. First, I want you to weaken the scattering field so we can beam back to the ship.

The Malkins watched Jane as she squirmed in agony on the floor and flailed desperately. A few seconds passed before one of the Malkins spoke. "We understand.

That was when Jane understood Keeling's logic. Unable to overpower the Malkins, he had exploited their only weaknesses: their compassion and pacifism.

Keeling looked to his followers. "Marzetti, instruct the Malkins on the adjustments. Campbell, hail the Thunderchild's computer. Dawson, if he can't break through the scattering field and raise the ship's computer in the next twenty seconds, shot Jane's other foot."

His order brought back all her pain, and the fear of an encore made it worse. She wanted to crawl away and hide, but the cold edge of Dawson's knife was firm against her throat. Her leg felt as if it was on fire, and her mouth was dry as a Vulcan desert. A sick feeling swelled in her stomach and an adrenaline overload was shaking her with the force of a seizure.

"I have the Thunderchild, sir." Campbell said.

"Instruct the computer to prepare for beam out." Keeling said.

One of the Malkins made a cautious gesture to Keeling then approached him. "I should warn you that the linked nature of the machine will make it obvious to the others in the network when we shift our focus from a central command system, so your time travel formula will infect it as a whole. These details will not go unnoticed. The Council will block your escape from orbit once your actions are noted by the combiner."

"They'll try." Keeling said with a sinister grin. He opened his tricorder and checked the chronometer and smiled even more. "Which is why, when we set our timers, I chose this as the perfect time for a distraction."

On another part of the Malkins' planet, the Malkins of the city of Kirasa were preparing to activate their machine.

"The machine is at nominal levels and holding." A female Malkin said as she gazed into the read out screen as streams of data flooded the screen. "Subspatial harmonics are stable, data stream integrity is…"

Errors and failures cascaded from every system and the Malkins abandoned their previous tasks to attend to the crisis."

"The Parlian node is misaligned." One male Malkin said.

They observed the feed from from Parlian. It fell farther out of synchronization with the other nodes the longer they watched. Then a hue of alarm resonated in the combiner, and the Malkins of Kirasa caught only the most fleeting sense of its warning, the off worlders had interfered in the Great Experiment. Before they could learn more, a discordant wail of pain and terror engulfed the combiner and drowned out all the other voices. At the same time, a surge of chaotic signals and unchecked power spikes blasted through the apparatus network, disrupting its global frequency.

For the first time, the Malkins had ever known, the combiner was silenced by its shared pain and horror.

Far beyond the horizon from Kirasa, halfway between it and Parlian, the city of Mei had just vanished in a flash of fire.


	7. Negotiations

The tricorder on Lieutenat Craig's belt went off making all kinds of beeps and noises to get his attention. He pulled it off his belt and looked at it. "Sir, Massive detonation just occurred. One of the cities just exploded."

Enjoying that his plan was working out, Keeling turned his attention to Campbell. "Status on transport?"

"Energizing in sixty seconds."

"Excellent. Stand by for beam out." Keeling said to his followers.

Meanwhile, Blaine Stork looked up to see Mickind looming over him. The sudden appearance of the Malkin startled the captain. He wasn't sure what the alien was doing, he suddenly no longer felt bound by the rope and then realized that Mickind had willed the rope into non-existence. He pulled the sock from his mouth and looked over to see that the rest of his crew, the ones not following Lieutenant Keeling, were also free from their restraints.

Stork turned back to Mickind, massaging his rope burned wrists. "Keeling and other members of my crew are planning an attack."

"Their scheme is already set in motion." Mickend said. "They have destroyed one of our cities by sabotaging a node of the machine."

The rest of the officers gathered at their captain's sides. "Can't you stop them?" Purdy asked.

"They are threatening Ensign Fiona Jane to keep us at bay. For her sake, we are exercising caution."

Stork fumed to think of Keeling using Ensign Jane as a pawn. Although Jane had betrayed the captain by siding with Keeling, she was still a member of the crew. "Is she okay?"

"No. She's badly wounded and may die."

Doctor Jantzen King spoke up. "Take me to her, I can…"

"Unacceptable." Mickind said. "Allowing you to regroup with the others is forbidden by order of the Council. I am here only because the combiner saw that you were not with the others, and we feared for your well being."

The doctor looked ready to argue with him, but Stork silenced his chief medical officer with a raised hand. "Mickind, take us to the Council, as fast as you can. We'll help you stop Keeling and the others before this gets any worse."

Mickind pondered his request for a few seconds before bowing his head ever so slightly. "Events are accelerating. I will take you to the Council."

Lieutenant Keeling's vision pierced the white haze of the transporter effect as he rematerialized in the transporter room inside the Thunderchild.

To his left was Ensign Campbell and Vail, and in front of them, with their phasers in its back, was a Malkin scientist. Keeling prodded the alien forward. "Move."

As they stepped off the transporter pad, Keeling holstered his phaser. "Put him in the brig, I'll be on the bridge."

As they walked out the door, the transporter chamber lit up and beamed in more of Keeling's followers.

"Captain Stork," Demo said. "You told us a short time ago that you and your kind posed no threat to us." A wave of his hand caused a video screen to appear showing the image of a Malkin city being consumed in a fiery flash. When the blinding glare faded, it revealed an image of the Starfleet led hostage crisis taking place in Parlian's machine control center. His cheeks burned with shame as he watched her crew coerce the Malkins by threating the already wounded Ensign Jane. "It seems you underestimated your people's capacity for brutality." Demo then turned his attention to Mickind. "These savage beings were welcomed into our home at your urging. Now they have extinguished countless lives, minds that were integral to the combiner, and they have interfered at a critical moment during the great experiment."

Mickind bowed low from the waist. "Forgive me, Demo. I sought only knowledge and understanding."

"I trust that you will remember this next time you are tempted to indulge your curiosity at the expense of our safety."

"I will." Mickind said, the top half of his body still parallel with the floor.

Captain Stork stepped forward. "Can we play the blame game later, please?" Mickind straightened and looked back at him in surprise, and Demo seemed taken aback by his tone. "We need to act quickly if you want to stop this from getting worse."

"What do you propose?"

"Let me talk to them." Stork said. "Now."

"That seems ill-advised."

He gritted his teeth and sighed to dispel the swell of anger in his voice. "They're manipulating you. You're not used to dealing with strangers, so your people told us anything we wanted to know. My crew is using that knowledge to make you help them. You don't understand us well enough to put an end to this. But I do. Stop cooperating with them and open a channel and I'll try to end this."

"I find it difficult to believe you are so concerned with our well being." Demo said.

"You're right." Stork admitted. "I'm not. But I know how seriously you take your privacy, and I have a good idea what you'll have to do to my home world if I don't put a stop to this. I like Earth where it is. I'd rather not see it somewhere else."

Mickend spoke up. "He sounds sincere, Demo."

Stork got the impression that Mickind's support did little to bolster his position with Demo. Regardless, a few seconds later Demo turned toward the image of the ongoing hostage situation and declared, "Your people can hear you know, Captain."

He surveyed the scene, noted that Keeling and Campbell were both absent, and surmised that the two of them had beamed back to the ship. He also noted that Marzetti was in charge and the one he should negotiate. "ENSIGN!" He snapped. "This is Captain Stork. Stand down."

Marzetti looked up and around until he obviously found a screen near him that was displaying the captain's face. "I'm sorry, Captain. I can't do that."

"Yes you can, Thomas. Ask the others if you're still in contact with the Thunderchild." He waited while Marzetti looked to Dawson, who tapped his communicator in an attempt to hail the ship and then shook his head. Stork continued. "The scattering field is back up, isn't it?" Take my word for it, Ensign: The Thunderchild is not breaking orbit today. You've failed. Tell Dawson to let Jane go."

He seemed ready to falter, just for a moment and then he raised his phaser and pointed it at Jane. "No, Captain. Lieutenant Keeling's orders were clear."

"What did the lieutenant order you to do?" Stork asked.

"Whatever I had to. As long as I secured the Malkins' cooperation."

Stork saw that Marzetti was reluctant to elaborate on Keeling's orders. He suspected that part of him regretted what he was doing. His hesitation and general unease told him he was rationalizing his way through this mess. "So, you were prepared to wound Jane. But are you ready to kill her?"

"We'll treat her as soon as we reach the ship."

"But you're not going to the ship, Ensign and neither is she. So you might as well kill her now, and let her death be quick instead of drawing it out."

Demo interrupted, indignant. "Captain, we cannot permit your ensign to…" A vicious glare from Stork quelled his protest and Demo cast a long look at Mickind, who responded with his own icy stare of reproof.

Marzetti intensified his focus on Jane as he talked to the captain. "Don't bother trying to bluff me, Captain. I'll do what I have to. I'm going home to my family."

"No, you're not, John. I've asked the Malkins not to cooperate with your demands. But I can't stand here and watch Fiona's life drain away like this. Let me make it easier for you. This is an order, Ensign. Kill Ensign Jane."

He looked perplexed. "Sir?"

"You heard me, Ensign. Kill her. When she's dead, you've got nothing left. Let's just end the game here. Kill her." Stork waited a few seconds, after which, Marzetti had done nothing, he feigned disgust. "Fine then, Ensign Dawson, cut the ensign's throat. That's an order."

Only now did Stork notice that the din of the Council had faded to silence as everyone waited for the reaction to her strategy.

Dawson removed the blade from Jane's throat and dropped it to the ground. Without him to hold her torso upright, Jane collapsed onto her back. Marzetti, sensing the surrender of the others, lowered his weapon and pulled his hand over his face, wiping away sweat, grim and fatigue.

"Ensign Marzetti, get a first aid kit and start treating Ensign Jane's wound. We'll get the doctor to you as soon as we can."

"Aye, Captain." Marzetti said.

One of the Malkin scientists in the facility neared the comm. link. "It will take time to dissolve the temporally shifted subspace aperture. The Earth ship should be restrained until the phenomenon has been dissolved."

"Understood." Demo said. "Proceed with haste." Demo then looked to his visitors. "Mickind, see the humans' physician to their wounded comrade."

Stork cut in. "One thing first. Let me talk to my ship. I need to have a few words with Lieutenant Keeling."


	8. Armageddon

Keeling didn't seem to care that he was making a scene on the bridge. "I'm not interested in excuses, I want answers."

Lieutenant Thayer began entering commands into the science console. "If I had answers for you I'd give them to you. But all we know right now is that the scattering field is back and we can't get a transporter lock."

"What about the subspace tunnel?" Keeling asked.

"Stable, for now." She turned to the crewmember at the communications station. "Patch in the boosters, maybe there's a lingering frequency gap we can exploit."

Suddenly, the main view screen popped on showing the image of Captain Stork. The sudden image of Stork startled Keeling. "Lieutenant Keeling, Ensign Campbell, you are charged with mutiny, conspiracy, assault on a superior officer, assault on your fellow officers, and the attempted murder of Ensign Fiona Jane. And tack on disobeying the orders of a superior officer." Stork's attention went to Lieutenant Thayer. "Lieutenant, if you want to salvage anything of your life, then follow my orders and put Lieutenant Keeling and Ensign Campbell under arrest."

"Aye, sir." Thayer said. "Anything else, sir?"

"I think that pretty much…"

The signal went dead.

Then something hammered the Thunderchild, and Thayer realized that everything that had occurred on the planet's surface had just become the least of her problems.

On the planet's surface, a thunderclap filled the air, the glowing orbs at the top of the chamber were extinguished and a flash reddened the night sky beyond the crystal walled pyramid. Tremors shook the floor under Stork's feet and knocked him down. The other Thunderchild officers fell beside him.

An earsplitting crack made Stork wince and when he opened his eyes again; a ragged fissure had appeared in the floor. "Mickind, what's happening?"

"It's a feedback pulse from the disruption of the great experiment. It's causing a chain reaction in our solar and geothermal taps."

The officers ran outside to see the night sky become blood red.

"A feedback pulse did this?" Trinn asked.

"It disrupted our technology, including our energy taps. The combiner has been trying to contain the damage but has failed. We have very little time left. The core of our star has been pushed past its supercritical point. Its detonation is imminent and the solar mass ejection will be propelled at faster than light velocity by a subspatial shock wave."

"Until what?" Stork asked.

"Until this star system is destroyed.

Not only did the feedback pulse affect the planet, it knocked the Thunderchild out of orbit and sent it flying out of control towards the subspace aperture.

"Fifteen seconds to the subspace tunnel." Thomas reported.

The ship pitched and rolled into the tunnel. Darkness blinked in and out on the bridge as consoles erupted into flames and sparks showered down from overloaded relays in the overhead. A brutal jolt hurled Thayer from the command chair.

She clawed her way back to the chair and tapped her communicator badge. "Thayer to Engineering. Repo…"

The rest of the word refused to leave her throat. A dry rasp rattled in her chest. Her mouth felt as if it were carved from sand and a burning sensation fill her eyes, her sinuses and then every cell in her body.

Everyone on the bridge was in agony, just as she was. She saw their faces contort in horror, watched them fall to the deck beside her. They were all going through the motions of fighting for air, even though their bodies no longer had the ability to inhale. She felt her thoughts breaking down as her brain boiled and burned. Thomas was the first to vanish in a cloud of ash, and Campbell and Keeling both disintegrated into gray powder. Thayer reached out to Mayer for one last moment of human contact before oblivion. She bridged the distance with her outstretched hand, but as she took it in hers, she couldn't feel it.

Then both of their hands crumbled to dust, and a few seconds later she felt nothing at all.

Somewhere, deep in the Gamma Quadrant, the USS Alexandria drifted into a high orbit above a planet. The last time the Alexandria had been to the Gamma Quadrant, they had found the NX-02 Columbia on Sineron II and also run into the Breen, who were in the process of creating a Jem'Hadar soldier. They had kidnapped Lieutenant Commander Dustin Zofchak to battle this soldier. The crew was able to save the chief engineer and outsmart the Breen before any major damage had been done.

Captain Jermaine Allensworth came out of his ready room at the request of his first officer, Commander Alex Merriell. As he stepped onto the bridge, he noted all of his senior officers were at their stations and seemed anxious about something.

"Report." Allensworth said.

"We're picking up a metallic mass on the surface of the planet." Merriell said.

"I thought this planet was uninhabited." Allensworth said.

"That's what our initial reports say that coincide with the reports from Deep Space Nine when they briefly explored this part of the Quadrant." Merriell said.

Allensworth bit his lower lip as he thought and turned to Lieutenant Commander Ra'chel Johnson at the Ops console. "How big is the mass?"

Ra'chel entered commands into her console. "It's about four hundred and sixty four meters in length and three hundred and sixteen meters across."

"Power readings?" Allensworth asked.

"None, whatsoever." Johnson replied.

Allensworth turned back to Merriell.

"It's too small to be a city but it's about the size of a building or a ship. But I don't understand why there are not power readings. If it were anything containing life, we'd pick up anything emanating power." Merriell said.

Allensworth nodded. "Commander, I want you to lead an away team down there and investigate."

"Aye, sir." Merriell nodded. He turned on his heel and pointed to McKenzie to join him on the away team. "Johnson, you're with me."

Ra'chel got up from her post; she was almost instantly replaced by a crewmember from the aft section of the bridge, and joined Commander Merriell and Lieutenant McKenzie in the turbolift.

The three officers materialized on a dusty hill with the wind blowing directly into their faces. The wind had caught them off guard and they had to shield their eyes from the possibility of dust getting in them. They looked around and saw no traces of anything out of the ordinary.

Ra'chel pulled her tricorder from her belt and activated it. It beeped telling her where the metallic mass was located. "This way. Just over the hill."

They approached the edge of the hill and to their complete and utter shock, they found the metallic mass they were looking for.

"What does this mean?" Merriell said.

Written in standard Starfleet style lettering on the bow of the saucer section was "NCC-63549, USS THUNDERCHILD."

To be continued…


End file.
